Electrospun nanofibrous membrane for electrodialysis

The direct fabrication of homogenous membrane for electrodialysis has become the research hotspots in the field of water purification. A novel multi-jet electrospinning method with sheath gas was presented to study the fabrication of homogenous electrodialysis membrane. By soaking into sulfuric acid, the reactive exchange groups can be introduced into the electrospun nanofibrous membrane that has been hot pressed. Thanks to the pores among nanofibers, electrospun electrodialysis membrane had advantages of higher porosity, higher water uptake and lower membrane resistance, which promoted the ion transmission through the membrane. The porosity, water uptake and ion exchange capacity (IEC) reduced with the increase of membrane thickness. An electrodialysis separation system was set up to test its separation performance. The results showed that the desalinization ratio of NaCl solution could be reached to 58.15% within 30 minutes. The electrospun nanofibrous membrane for electrodialysis provides a simple and effective way to expand its industrial application. (paper)